ubjoin it:--'But first (says the learned preacher) it may be
demanded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this facetiousness (or
_wit_ as he calls it before) doth import? To which questions I might
reply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man,
"'Tis that which we all see and know." Any one better apprehends what it
is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed,
a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many
postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and
judgements, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain
notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the
figure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a
known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in
forging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases,
taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of
their sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression:
sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude: sometimes it is lodged in
a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd
intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection:
sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in
a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling
of contradictions, or in acute nonsense: sometimes a scenical
representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical
look or gesture, passeth for it: sometimes an affected simplicity,
sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being: sometimes it riseth
only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange: sometimes from a crafty
wresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in one knows
not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are
unaccountable, and inexplicable; being answerable to the numberless
rovings of fancy, and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner of
speaking out of the simple and plain way, (such as reason teacheth and
proveth things by,) which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit
or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some
wonder, and breeding some delight thereto. It raiseth admiration, as
signifying a nimble sagacity of apprehension, a special felicity of
invention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; it
seeming to argue a rar